Sex Offenders Need Variety Of Strategies To Control Urges

September 21, 1997|By PATRICK LEE PLAISANCE Daily Press

There are no statewide guidelines for treating sex offenders. Probationary offices in every region of the state require most convicted sex offenders to attend regular group and individual counseling sessions for up to three years. But the use of other techniques varies widely.

Because therapists say pedophiles, rapists, exhibitionists and other offenders are never really ``cured'' of their desires, treatment strategies are all intended to help achieve the same goal: getting the offender to control sexual impulses.

Treatments include:

* Individual and family counseling. Particularly important with incest cases. Due to common denial on the part of spouses of sex offenders, success depends upon their involvement in the counseling as well.

* Group counseling. Offenders have proven to be quick at identifying deception in their cohorts, because they all are familiar with the same patterns of denial and manipulation. As a result, group sessions are effective ways to force offenders to acknowledge responsibility for their actions.

* Satiation therapy. Offenders who have not responded well to counseling are repeatedly told to masturbate while watching ``conventional'' adult erotica or pornography. Immediately after climax, they are shown sex tapes that fulfill their own aberrant fantasies - children playing, rape scenes, etc. The intent is to deprive their fantasies of their physical reward - sexual climax - and thus dull their appetite for it.

* Behavioral modifiers. Often called ``thought stoppers,'' these are ways to prompt offenders to consider the consequences of acting on sexual impulses. They can be as simple as conditioning an offender to snap a rubber band worn around his wrist anytime a fantasy crosses his mind. Vials of ammonia or small electric-shock devices also have been used.

* Journal writing. Effective in tracking patterns of how offenders confront their own urges and in gauging how honestly they do so.

* Plethysmograph. Device to measure volume of blood flow and other fluctuations in body functions. A mercury-filled sensor ring can be attached to the penis to gauge the intensity of arousal response of someone shown various erotic images. Test is used to pinpoint an offender's sexual preferences or fixations.

* Polygraph. Lie-detector tests used to help break down defenses of denial and to gauge how truthfully an offender is reporting his activities. Can be used initially in treatment to assess the extent of an offender's activities, and periodically to help monitor behavior.

* ``Stop/think'' technique. Offenders are required to dictate their sexual thoughts and feelings on tape through a day, discussing with therapists fantasies they may have and whether they can perceive how those urges may distort their sense of acceptable behavior. They also must explore the consequences of acting out any fantasies - something most have never done before treatment.

* Random home visits. Officers check for sexual material and videotapes that offenders are specifically prohibited from having as part of their probation.

In Newport News, a recent study showed about 6 percent of sex offenders who did receive treatment continued to prey on victims. ``Statistically speaking, if we do nothing, it shows about 30 to 50 percent will repeat,'' said Pryor Green, sex-offender program supervisor in the Newport News district office.

``I've always felt they should serve some amount of time,'' Green said. ``There are some that do turn around. But for those who don't, you establish a track record. He can't argue, `I need help, I need treatment.' That door has been slammed shut.''